


Hurtin' for Certain

by Sabro_Scribbles



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Distress, Graphic Description of Injury, Hurt/Comfort, I'm an artist what am I doing here, Implied/Referenced Torture, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Mild Language, Panic, This was a nightmare that took a life of its own, death of a horse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:20:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26535001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sabro_Scribbles/pseuds/Sabro_Scribbles
Summary: When the Old Man and Captain mysteriously disappear after a rogue world shift, the other heroes scramble to find them only growing more and more distressed the longer it takes the two of them to turn up. "It's okay, we'll find them. They can handle themselves."But how can someone handle a situation when their hands are bound to the ceiling?
Relationships: Legend & Warriors (Linked Universe), Time & Warriors (Linked Universe)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 78





	1. Where?

**Author's Note:**

> Oh geez, oh gosh, I've never done this before. I'm an artist I don't write, but some random writing braincell came bursting through my door and now here we are! Just as a warning upfront this story starts really tame and then goes into way more intense stuff than I thought I was capable of, so be careful okay! (Of all things to be my first fanfic ever it had to be this am I right?)

This shouldn’t be right. The group had woken up in the middle of a field when they clearly had set up camp for the night next to a lake. Stranger still was Legend couldn’t seem to spot who was supposed to be on watch either.

“Hey, where’s the Old Man?”

Twilight’s head snapped up from checking with Wild and looked around. Legend took another glance around, noting the Old Man was definitely absent, but after a quicker third take he noticed there was another missing too.

Wind seemed to notice at the same time, “Wait! Where’s the Captain?” He turned around looking this way and that, yet the duo was nowhere in sight. Even their stuff was still scattered about. Four got up to walk off a short distance to see if maybe they ended up a little further away from the group.

“I don’t understand. Did we switch in our sleep?” Hyrule sent Sky a questioning glance, but the older hero seemed to still be in shock staring in the direction where the lake was last night. 

“Does anyone know where we are at least? Is this place even safe?” Legend couldn’t get any clues from the landmarks, not that there were many to see. A few trees scattering the field, dirt paths well traveled, a few fences here and there, a mountain, and maybe a forest off to the east.

“It might be the Old Man’s,” Twilight pointed towards a structure off in the distance. “Call me crazy, but I think that’s the Ranch.” Sure enough, Legend squinted and located a familiar looking barn and house just over the horizon. It seemed impossible, but they really did switch. _How?_ They were just in Twilight’s world and only there for half a day! How could they have already switched? And, not only that, they switched without their usual step-through-a-portal routine.

“Maybe they went to see Malon!” Wind pulled his telescope out as if to try and see if he could spot them on the path.

“Yeah, right! The Old Coot wouldn’t just take off and with Lover-boy of all people! And don’t forget they would've had to leave in the middle of his watch without a note or waking any of us up. And I don’t really see him as the type to ditch his responsibilities.” Wind glared at Legend, but seemed to agree with his words.

Four joined back with the group and shook his head, “I couldn’t find any sign of them in the surrounding area. It's like they were transported somewhere else completely.” The situation started to slowly sink in on all of them.

“I think we should still check with Malon,” Sky glanced at the ranch. “Time knows this place even if we don’t. Surely he’ll know how to head home from wherever they ended up. Maybe they already made it to the ranch?”

They all agreed and began to pack up their gear, and the gear of the missing two, and headed in the direction of Time’s home. Legend noticed how quiet this trek was compared to other days. The only sounds were their footsteps and the hushed whispers from Twilight and Wild. Warrior wasn’t there to chat and tell jokes to Wind or to playfully bicker with Legend starting a whole satirical performance. Time would often strike up a conversation with whoever he was walking with and have a few of them join in as well. They’d learn a lot about each other from those, but now the air was tense, Time wasn’t there to chat and Wind dragged his feet more. No one knew if the two would be at the ranch or not. Maybe they were further away than the field, or they could’ve switched to a whole different Hyrule somehow. They’ve never been separated during a switch before. Legend shook his head at the thought. _They’ll be there with Malon there’s nothing to worry about._

Not long after, they made it to the ranch. Four and Wild went to check the barn hoping Malon didn’t mind them entering without saying hi first. Wind grabbed Hyrule and booked it to the corral to see if Time and Warrior were out in the field working. Twilight took Sky and Legend with him to the house to talk with Malon hoping she was inside. They knocked and waited until a surprised older gentleman answered the door.

“Oh! Well, hello. I’m sorry, but we’re about to head out to town in a little while, folks.”

Legend noticed Twilight’s shoulders sag at the greeting. He guessed Twilight expected Time to answer the door. “Sorry to bother you, sir, we just wanted to ask if a man named Link came by here recently with another person?”

“Oh, Link? Shoot, I’m sorry fellas, but I haven’t seen him or had any other company for a long while,” The man stroked his beard as if thinking anymore on it would change his answer. Maybe they hadn’t gotten to the ranch first after all.

“Ah, I see. I hate to intrude anymore, sir, but is Malon here? We’re, uh, Link’s family and our party got a bit separated on the way here. We’d like to maybe talk with her?”

“Oh? Why sure y’all can come in real quick before we go, I’ll go get Malon. Any family of Link’s is family of mine!” He shuffled off before they could say anymore. Legend scoffed, _A little too trusting of people._ They awkwardly let themselves in the rest of the way and closed the door. The house had the same cozy, familiar atmosphere as last time. It was warm and the sun came through the windows just right to give the home a gentle glow. There was some clattering above and fast footsteps coming towards the stairs.

Then there she was, red hair swinging behind her and she hurried down the stairs to greet them, “Hey boys! I didn’t expect to have y’all here today, I would’ve put off our plans to go into town if I knew! How have y’all been?” Malon came over and took in their appearance and frowned. “Did something happen?”

Twilight nodded, “We actually have a problem. Two of our group were separated from us on the way here and we couldn’t find any sign of them in the field. We thought they’d be here first, but now we don’t have any clue where they are.” Sky stepped forward putting his hand on Twilight’s shoulder before he would panic the woman.

“What he means to say is they could’ve been dropped off somewhere further away than us and making their way here might take a little longer. We still don’t know where they are, but I’m sure they’ll be able to handle themselves out there.”

Malon sighed and played with the ring on her left hand, “I suppose one of the two not here is my husband?” They nodded and she smiled “Well, if I know anything it’s true that he can handle himself and if he’s with another one of y’all then their chances of making it here in one piece is practically a guarantee.” 

She gave them all a reassuring look and Legend had to admit Malon made a good point. The Old Man and Captain were in a league of their own, almost nothing he could think of could take them down. _Almost._ His mind wandered to the times monsters had gotten a few good hits in on them both. Hell, the same moblin knocked them both off their feet before the group was able to take it down. It was only because they were in a forest full of fairies that they were able to squeak by without major injuries. Legend startled out of his thoughts when he realized Malon was talking to them again.

“It’s unfortunate that I can’t wait with you, but you’re more than welcome to stay at the ranch with Ingo for when Link and your friend arrive.”

“Thank you, Malon! And we’ll all be more than happy to help with the work as well!” Legend balked at Sky. _What gave him the idea that they all wanted to work more?_ As much as he wanted to voice his complaints he got the suspicion Sky wanted to use work to distract the others from their current dilemma.

Malon laughed, “I very much appreciate it, please make yourselves at home we’ll be back sometime tomorrow night. Let’s hope the boys make it back by then or I’ll have to give them an earful on making us worry so!”

After a quick explanation of their plans to the older gentleman, Malon’s father Talon, he agreed and thanked the heroes for watching their ranch. Twilight and Legend walked Malon and her father to the gates while Sky told the others that they had chores once again. The collective groan heard even from afar was almost enough to make Legend laugh.

That first day waiting started tentatively, but soon became full of jokes on the duo’s behalf: how they were fashionably late, how they were going to do everyone’s chores when they returned, and that Time wouldn’t be put on watch anymore since he “ran off.” It was all they could do to distract how worried they actually were. 

Ingo turned out to be surprisingly good company at least. He seemed genuinely dedicated to his work even if he appeared grumpy while doing so, and even shared that he had dreams of making it big one day and becoming famous in some show business. Legend didn’t pay much attention to his musings and just wanted to get the day’s work done and over with.

The first night was full of hope that maybe the missing two would show up in the middle of the night and surprise them all in the morning. Everyone tucked themselves in for the night whispering that their comrades will show up sooner or later. Well, everyone but Twilight, who went out by the gate to keep a lookout for the two absent heroes.

Never had a morning been so disappointing to them. They repeated the previous day’s work, but the jokes from the day before felt sour in their memory. Ingo, thankfully knew how to read a room and even toned down the irritability. There was little to no conversation the whole day. No one dared to speak when Malon came back from her Castle Town errand that evening and there was still no sign of her husband or the Captain. Malon suggested that they were held up and could even send a letter. It gave a bit of hope, but everyone knew it was a long shot. After a depressingly quiet dinner, the heroes went to bed early, trying not to dwell on a very possible reality.

The fourth day was all the more disheartening as there was still no sign of them. All day they watched the entrance and Malon even flagged down the postman, but there were no letters. No Heroes. No one felt like eating that night, though Malon insisted they keep their strength up and their will strong. Legend overheard her talking with Twilight later in the night that it’s at most two days of travel to the ranch from any point in Time’s Hyrule, even without a horse. He never wanted to hear her that shaken ever again.

The seventh day was their breaking point.

They never lasted this long in a Hyrule before switching and everyone was prepared for the change this time. Twilight and Sky tried to make the situation hopeful, if they switched the two could be transported to their location just as they had been taken away the first time. Or they could be transported to a Hyrule they actually know and would be able to search for them with little risk. They all stayed with Malon promising her they’ll find her husband and try to make it back with him as soon as possible.

To their utter disbelief they were soon transported to Wild’s Hyrule. The largest, most pain in the ass land they could’ve been thrust into in that moment. And, sadly, to no one’s surprise the Old Man and the Captain were not transported to them either.

“Well, what the hell do we do now!”

Twilight whipped around to face him, _“Legend!”_

“Don’t you _‘Legend’_ me! You know very well as much as I do, as much as all of us do, that we are never going to find them in this damn place!” Legend was furious. Too furious to care about how loud he was, about his words disheartening those around him, about the tears welling up. “Tell me I’m wrong I dare you, I really want you to try to spin this as a good thing, because I don’t see how this isn’t as hopeless as we can get!” He panted for a bit as his shouts echoed off the cliff faces around them before he sank to the ground and held his head in his hands. Hyrule rushed over and wrapped his arms around him, already crying.

Legend shook his head, anger and fear boiling over into this episode of biting words. He didn’t realize how much the group had filled holes in his heart, and he certainly didn’t realize how much these two going missing would’ve affected him. How _scared_ it made him. Their little group turned into such a family and for once he had hoped this would be a family that couldn’t be ripped apart so easily. Now a rug had been pulled out from under him. _It could happen to anyone next. _He looked around at his comrades, his _family_ , and only then did the tears make their way down his face. __

__There was a shuffling of feet before the soft voice of Four spoke up, “Well, we have to search anyways. We have to do something.” That seemed to be everyone else’s invitation to breathe and open up._ _

__Sky scratched the back of his head in thought, adding, “If we could get to a town maybe we’d have a better chance of running into travelers who could’ve spotted something.”_ _

__“Or they could already be there,” it was barely even a whisper, but everyone tensed up at Wind’s hopeful thoughts._ _

__Legend looked up at him through his bangs, noticing how tired and sad the little sailor looked, regretting the mood he had set, he sighed, "Let’s not jinx it just yet.” Wild hummed in approval at something from over where he stood._ _

__“We’re actually not that far from Hateno, and I do mean not far,” Wild had his slate out and was tapping away at the screen and turned it around to show what he was looking at. “We’re here at what’s left of Fort Hateno and it’s about 11 hours following this road here if we don’t stop.”_ _

__Sky snapped his head towards Wild, “11 hours? I thought you said it wasn’t far!”_ _

__“I mean compared to the other towns…”_ _

__Twilight grasped Sky on the shoulder and addressed all of them, “We have to get to a town either way. We'll stop halfway for a break and have something to eat while we’re at it.” His face fierce with determination, “We’re going to find them.”_ _

__With the course set the heroes began their hike to Hateno. Legend took to being in the back wiping his eyes of any left over wetness. Hyrule joined him and the two walked in silence taking in each other’s company. After a while, still sniffling a bit, Hyrule asked, “Do you think they’re okay?” It was a hard question to think about. Impossible to know, but the pessimist inside Legend couldn’t help but assume the two missing heroes would be less than alright if they couldn’t even manage to give a sign as to where they were._ _

__Legend shook his head, shrugging, and left it at that._ _


	2. Where am I?

_What?_ Eyes squinting open, he tried to see what was going on. His head was pounding and his eyes shut again, tighter. _What happened?_ He felt his arms shaking, they ached, and his shoulders screamed, but he could barely move them. Warriors tried again to open his eyes. He saw his legs swaying below him hazily, his feet weren’t touching the ground. No. He tried to lift his head to see more, to look around, anything. The back of his head thrummed and he could only guess that’s where something struck him. 

Heart beating faster as he woke up more and he tried once again to move his arms. They were held above his head and the sharp pain of his wrists made itself known, making him jolt and wince. His breathing became shaky and he struggled more, kicking and wide awake. Sore, everything was sore. Grunting in frustration he stopped, mind racing. _Calm down. Think._

Warriors took in his surroundings. His eyes strained to see in the almost pitch black room. The only light source coming from the hallway torches’ light spilling through a barred window on a thick iron door in front of him. No windows and the room looked dug out with jagged rock walls, _underground_ his mind supplied, and he seemed to be slightly off from the middle. The air was humid and had a metallic smell. 

_Wait._ There was a soft exhale somewhere behind him. He held still in his restraints and listened. _There._ An inhale on his right, almost too soft to hear, and it was shaky. _Someone's hurt._ He strained his neck to look behind him more. He felt his stomach leap into his throat in horror, _"Time!"_

There on the other side of the room, hanging from his wrists as well, was Time. His head was down and his armor gone. They even took his tan tunic and boots, so all he was left in was his black shirt and pants.

Warriors tried to get his attention again, "Time! Time, it's the captain!" 

No response. 

"Time, answer me!" 

Nothing. 

_What happened?_ He tried to remember how he got here, how this could've happened. His head was still throbbing, and everything was still fuzzy, but he had flashes of recollection of the few previous days.

He had been running around Wild's Hyrule. He had originally gotten that hunch from climbing a rather big hill when he arrived only to see his hill really wasn't all that big compared to literally everything else. He couldn't find any town from his position, but spotted a river and decided to follow that. A town needed to get their water from somewhere after all.

After hours of hiking through wilderness and dodging octoroks, all he stumbled into were ruins after ruins. _Where were the towns?_ The sun was already heading to the horizon and it would soon be night. He spotted a land bridge ahead atop a rocky hill and decided to go check it out. 

What he didn't expect as he neared the top was to see a guardian stalker on the opposite side of the hill and he instantly fell into a crouch hoping to sneak away. Unfortunately, it spotted him right away. It’s whole body started glowing in a menacing light as it stood up higher to get ready for the chase and he took that as his cue to run away as fast as he could. He could hear those mechanical limbs slamming into the ground climbing the slope at such a frightening speed behind him as he jumped around and waived through rocks and boulders. 

A loud beeping getting faster and faster until a sharp screech went off and a beam of light exploded where he’d been just seconds before. _These things are terrifying! Think!_ His mind raced to come up with an escape route. The land bridge would give too little cover and maneuverability with this explosive beam and he quickly noticed there were monsters occupying it already anyway. The guardian was catching up fast, getting ready to fire again, so he slid down a rocky slope in his frantic rush to _get the hell out of there._ Another beam went off and grazed his side, it could barely even be considered a hit, yet pain seized his body and the explosion sent him flying down the rest of the hill. He scrambled to his feet, wincing, and made a break for some nearby ruins for cover. 

The sun was already gone and stalmoblins came out of the ground and moved to grab him. He ducked under them and kept sprinting, already hearing the next beam about to fire. His legs and side burned and the next beam went off hitting a stalmoblin. 

He stumbled and vaulted over crumbled walls and when he looked behind him to see where the guardian was he slammed into an empty brick well and fell in over the side with a shout. Dazed, he stood up, but instantly slammed back down, hiding, as the guardian had stopped it’s chase. It’s beeps were slow and it moved side to side instead of in a rampage. It lost him. Even the stalmoblins left had made confused grunts and they stalked around for a bit longer as the guardian looked around one more time before it’s footsteps retreated. Warriors panted hard, his heart pounding in his chest as adrenalin was still pumping through his body.

He stayed in the well all night.

The next day wasn't any better. Because of his chase, he ended up in a terrible position surrounded by even more guardians that were _flying_ and he had to abandon his original plan of following the river and just get to safety. He went towards the castle and found out that was a terrible idea as there were even more guardians. Thankfully, he was able to sneak by. The field, too, was easy enough to get by when he kept the slowest travel speed he could and stuck to the tall grass patches.

It took hours and a few close calls, but he didn't know he could be so happy to find a dirt road. And from that dirt road he saw a structure shaped like a giant horse head. _A stable!_ Careful to not be spotted by any guardians that could be roaming around he had made his way closer to civilization. It was right across a river (because of course it was) and he saw a bridge further up the stream. 

As he made his way towards it he saw a lone blue bokoblin on the bridge and groaned. Nothing was ever that easy, he just hoped it wasn't a corrupted one. As he got closer and unsheathed his sword he saw there was a woman beneath the monster as it jumped around in glee. He tightened his grip and rushed over to help. 

In another stroke of luck the bokoblin was defeated with ease and he helped the woman sit up and checked her for any wounds, “Ma’am, are you alright?”

She groaned and looked up at him almost jaded, “Ugh, my aching head. Why did I think it was a good idea to take this road?” She stood and wavered a bit before rubbing her eyes, “Saved again. Am I so wrong wanting to sit by the river? I can’t even take a walk anymore.” She sighed and brushed off her pants and began walking away, holding her side as well, “That’s life these days, I guess. Whatever. I’m going back to the stable.” 

Warriors stared after her in shock. It was an unexpectedly apathetic response to a rescue. And what had she meant “ _Saved again_?” He jogged to catch up to her, “Wait! Can I ask you some questions?”

She huffed, “That’s all I seem to be doing for you. Let me guess: You’re looking for your friends still, yada yada yada... No, I haven’t seen anyone-” She paused and blinked at him. “Wait. You’re not- Oh.” 

Warriors stared at the sheepish woman. _Could she have ran into the group then?_ He cleared his throat, “Well, as a matter of fact, I am looking for my friends. I’d be grateful for any help you can give.”

She sighed dramatically, “It was just some guy with face markings. We kept running into each other yesterday and he kept asking if I’d seen a group of travelers.” She put her hand up then as if to stop him from interrupting and huffed, “And I still haven’t in case you were wanting to bug me too! But after the third time, we were headed to the same stable and I overheard him ask around for directions to a town or village. Kakariko was closest so last I heard that’s where he went. And if you’re wondering, yeah Kakariko is close it’s over there by those jutting rocks.” 

She pointed to a group of peaks past the stable. It was hard to make out as the day was drawing to a close, but Warriors got his second wind. If he were to guess she had run into Time and one hero found was better than none. “Thank you so much, ma’am! You don’t know how much that helps!” 

She rolled her eyes and waved nonchalantly, “Yeah yeah, I hope I don’t run into any more of you. This is starting to get ridiculous how many blond men save me from monsters on bridges.” 

Kakariko, as it turned out, was not close at all. Taking a break to eat the food he’d gotten from the stable, he began to think more on his situation. Even though he had a landmark and the knowledge of where Time could very well be, it was taking too long. Way too long. He was well into day three and he feared Time could’ve been called away to switch already. And if he hadn’t already Time could’ve moved onto the next town to look for the heroes and Warriors could miss him completely. And he paused in his train of thought when something else came to mind. _How did we all get separated in the first place?_ He tried to recall what had happened, but everything was a blur. Time was on watch that night and he woke Warriors up when he had felt something weird was happening and the next thing Warriors remembered was him in the middle of nowhere, alone. He shook his head at the vague memory and decided it was better to not think about it at that moment. He needed to get somewhere safe first, that was his top priority. He could worry about the what ifs and whys to his predicament later.

Warriors walked a few more hours up the slope and even ran into a man and his donkey and asked for confirmation on Kakariko’s location. The slope in question seemed to get steeper and steeper as he continued and he felt he was hardly making any progress. 

Just when he grew frustrated enough and figured he’d take another break, he heard a horn. Then the sound of hooves. He turned around to see bokoblins on horses stampeding towards him. They were shrieking and waving spears. Many had bows and started shooting them in his direction. And all at once he was again running for his life. With no way to outrun horses going up to Kakariko he had to sprint down the steep hill to even have a chance of getting away. He saw a herd of wild horses to his left and ran towards them to throw off the bokoblins or even scare their horses and make them buck.

What he spotted next though wasn’t so hopeful. A Guardian. And it was already spriniting full speed towards him, ready to fire a laser. He tried to double back, but then he almost got run over by a bokoblin rider and just barely missed a guardian beam. _Think!_ Fighting it head on won’t work, but if he could just stun it to get more of a lead... even then it would catch up though. He rolled to dodge more arrows from the bokolin riders. And gasped at the realization. _The horses!_

He rolled again to escape another beam, they were getting more and more intense and the guardian was practically on top of him at this point. He ripped out his bow with a shout and shot the damn thing in the eye. It reeled back in almost a scream and buzzed, turning its head this way and that in a daze. Warriors spun on his heel to shoot the bokoblin charging him from behind off the horse it rode and grabbed the poor thing’s mane to leap onto it’s back. It shrieked at everything happening around it, but it didn’t stop and kept running at a breakneck speed. The guardian got over it’s daze and charged after them.

Warriors made the horse zig-zag as much as possible keeping it from getting blasted by the explosive beams. He didn’t know where he was going and almost made the risky maneuver to turn the horse around in the hopes of getting to Kakariko when suddenly the ground in front of them exploded and he was sent flying from his steed. He scrambled to get up, but before he could the ground next to him exploded again. _What?_ It was too fast of a recharge period for the guardian which could only mean- _Oh Hylia._

There in front of him was a second guardian.

His breath caught in his throat and he frantically looked for his horse, but tragically found it a few yards away from him laying on its side, surrounded by flames, unmoving. Warriors was used to odds being stacked against him, but this was something far out of his league. He was at a loss, he couldn’t think of any way to get out of this. He panicked. He took off in a desperate last ditch effort as the guardians both charged their beams. He was close to tears. Never had he thought his end would be like this, alone in some foriegn land, no way to fight back, his whole being full of fear, _running._

Then laughter. 

Something slammed into the back of his head. He lost his footing and his momentum sent him flying forward. His body hit the ground hard, and all the air was knocked out of him. He laid there watching the guardians close in, and before he lost consciousness, the world changed and shifted around him. The guardians and fire disappeared and all he could hear was laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of this chapter came about from me walking on a path I originally planned out War to take, starts at Mount Daphnes and he goes to the river on the left and follows it up to Mount Gustaf. it was just gonna be flashbacks and him wandering around and growing frustrated and then explaining how he and Time got into the mess they're currently in.   
> And then I ran into a guardian hid in a well :) I decided to just write what happens to me on the road from there on. He crosses the field, after skirting along hyrule castle town, and reached Rebonae Bridge and goes to wetland stables. and then of course the unmarked path to kakariko from there.   
> ALSO LET ME JUST SAY running from a guardian on foot is scary enough but when a second one shows up you just fucking die man. War survived but I died (but not before I had an epic gamer moment of stealin a horse from bokoblins being chased by said two guardians. that was my proudest achievement and then yeah i died but it still felt pretty rad)


	3. What's Going On?

Once the heroes reached the walls of Hateno, it was decided they split up with different tasks. Wild would take Four with him to the resident Sheikah lab to both see if the missing two heroes had come by and to ask Purah if she noticed anything odd happen in the land. If anyone were to find out anything suspicious, it would be the small scientist. 

Wind and Hyrule would go to Wild's house to, again, see if their companions were there, but also rest. Wind most of all and Hyrule to be there in case the lad's somber mood were to turn into something to worry about. The sailor's stress grew the longer he had time to think of every "what if" and "should have."

Legend, on the other hand, was picked to go with Twilight and Sky into town for supplies, but something else seemed to be on the ranch hand's mind as well.

He kept a bit to the back of their group, and he wrung his hands or played with the fur of his hood a little too much. He tried to hide his quick glances between Legend and Sky, who would share a glance back, enough to make the veteran suspicious of an ulterior motive. They were obviously wanting to talk to him about something, probably his tantrum and how much it snapped everyone out of whatever carefully crafted hopeful crap Twilight was pushing. Soon enough, it was Sky who broke their silence.

"How about we sit down for a bit? Somewhere quiet."

Legend snorted. _I knew it._

Twilight nodded and began to walk towards a tree by the fields. Legend took a deep breath and grumbled a "Fine." Sky welcomed it with a small smile anyways and they both walked to where Twilight had already sat down. _Let's get this over with._ Once they were all situated Sky gave a reassuring look to them both. 

Twilight cleared his throat, "I was talking to Sky earlier and…" he trailed off and looked at said hero who gave him a nod. "I need to talk to you about something." He looked at Legend with a very serious face. "But first I wanted to apologize. For shouting at you when you were upset. I didn't know how panicked you were and-" He paused there, looking ashamed, "We're a team and I'm sorry."

Legend blinked at them, shocked. He expected to be chewed out for his outburst and he rightfully deserved it too. He himself definitely felt guilty for contributing a majority to Wind's growing fears and doubts. Why on earth would _Twilight_ be the one apologizing? Before he could say as much Twilight continued.

"I wanted to talk about how I felt I had to give y'all hope and keep up the morale for as long as possible, but it's worked against us and- and it's _turned_." His face scrunched up and he looked down, his hands were clasped so tightly they shook. "I didn't think downplaying the situation would do something like this, you panicked and Wind," he trailed off and his hands moved to grasp his head. "Wind is so stressed now, because I lied to him, to you all. The longer we take this slow and put off acceptance, the longer those two have to wait to be found. They've been gone so long and we haven't gotten so much as a sign. I started to believe that they _can't_ contact us. And now-" He stopped again and looked up at Legend, his eyes were watering. "I'm so scared."

In an instant, Sky’s presence felt validated as he quickly moved closer to Twilight and placed a hand on his shoulder in a silent offer. Twilight reached around and grasped the Skyloftian in a hug as he finally let loose all the control he had. He shook and let out the occasional sob as Sky rubbed his back, but all Legend could do was stare dumbfounded.

Legend knew for a while that Time and Warrior’s disappearance was anything but normal and learned to accept that it wasn’t going to be easy to find them while lamely waiting at the ranch. He knew it should’ve been ridiculous to jump on the idea that the two were held captive or hurt in some way somewhere and panic as much as they have. _But._ He thought, _We’re Heroes. We know exactly how determined we’d be to get back to each other_. He exhaled slowly. He could only assume Time and Warriors weren’t in Hateno from the lack of celebration from the other two parties. He began to think over all the info they knew so far.

No message had been sent to the ranch. That postman was one to be reckoned with, if Legend heard right, and would never be so late to deliver such a letter. Neither Malon nor Talon heard any news from castle town for their entire delivery. Malon had shakenly mentioned to Twilight that even by foot, her husband would’ve been able to reach the ranch while they were all there. The nail in the coffin was Time and Warriors effects were still in their camp, but they themselves weren’t. Legend sighed as the info led to what he had assumed early on.

The two heroes were never in Time’s Hyrule in the first place.

This was already cause for concern. Something had to have displaced them specifically, there was the lack of a portal to keep in mind. The control of whatever did this was insane. Their close proximity to the camp, yet they were the only ones affected. The question now being was it meant for them or did they happen to be at the (very specific) wrong place at the wrong time? However the most pressing fact was they were missing more than a week already. That could be a week of those two looking in vain for the group wherever they ended up, or hell even a week of them laying in a ditch somewhere.

Sky seemed to notice him thinking hard, “Are you alright?”

Legend huffed at his careful tone, “I’m trying to figure out a way to find them by trying to know what happened to them.” He went over his theory. Sky didn’t interrupt and nodded slowly as he explained. Even Twilight began to listen along as well although he didn’t seem fond of the idea that the two were stranded. When he finished, Legend waited for their own input. 

Twilight shook his head, “I admit I had time travel in my quest, but it was very limited. The only time displacement tool was a portal that is locked to one area far from where our campsite was that night.” 

Sky hummed in thought, “The only thing that I know of with that kind of mobile specificity were timeshift stones, but they were, well, more time based rather than transportation. I had a limited view of the past” He paused, remembering the details of this part of his quest, “While I was able to successfully bring a seedling to the present and back to the past to be planted elsewhere, people were another story. I couldn’t bring a past resident to the present, they’d just turned to bone and dust on the spot…”

“So we’re dealing with something really powerful and not some gimmick. This had to be purposeful then.” Legend stood up, face set with determination, “We need to talk with the others. If we can find out how we could’ve gotten separated then we can find a way to get them back.”

Sky and Twilight stayed seated, no doubt dreading the point they both come clean to the others after filling them all with so much hope. Legend’s shoulders drooped. How guilty they must have felt, not wanting to panic the others and by doing so, did nothing to help Time and Warriors.

Twilight closed his eyes and shook his head softly, “My whole quest started from my friends being taken from our village. I didn’t even think back then and ran across the bridge to get to them. I was just some country teenager, but I still believed I could leave the forest and save them alone.” He looked up at the leaves of the tree they gathered under, “Why didn’t I do that again for these two?” Sky nodded in agreement, regret coming off of him in waves.

“When Zelda was taken, I didn’t want to do anything but go down to the surface as soon as possible.” He laughed softly, but there was no mirth, “I didn’t even know if it existed at the time, but I wanted to do anything to get Zelda back. I planned on ignoring Headmaster Gaepora’s insistence on getting better before we’d fly out and look for her.” He looked over at Twilight, face full of guilt, “I failed to have the same urgency for these two and I enabled you into inaction as well, I’m so sorry.”

The ranch hand nodded in acknowledgment, but said nothing else. Legend looked at them, both were unsure why they had gone with their recent decisions. But Legend knew.

“You both wanted to look out for us. You did what you thought was best for the group, no one can blame you for that.” They both looked up at him and he continued before his face could get red in embarrassment, “Look the Old Man and Captain were our rocks. They took care of us more than we gave them credit for and you both knew someone had to step up so you did it yourselves because no one else thought it important to do so. And it was genuinely nice of you, so… yeah.” He lamely ended his ramble and looked away crossing his arms, face unfortunately turned red anyways. When he glanced back though, he saw Twilight and Sky smiling up at him. His words meant much more to them than he thought they would.

They were all too soon interrupted by Wild though, who jogged up the slight hill, “Hey! There you guys are!” When he reached them he took a moment to catch his breath. Once he was ready to speak again, he stood up straight and his face became serious, “We might know how they disappeared and you’re not going to like this. Come on, it’ll be better if Purah explains this. I can barely wrap my head around it.” And with that Wild began to lead to the way to the Sheikah lab.

“I sent Four to the house to check up on the traveler and sailor. He’s not going to tell them anything yet we wanted to wait for you guys to hear this first.” He thought about his next words before adding quietly, “We didn’t know if we would scare Wind more or not. I know he’s a hero like the rest of us, but the Captain is almost like his family.” Twilight sucked in a breath at that and Legend looked over at him questioningly. Interesting. 

When they made it to the pretty unimpressive building and entered it was a bit chaotic for a lab Legend thought. Papers were scattered on the table, books were left open on the floor, and there was a pile of letters in a corner. In the center of it all was a small Sheikah girl standing on a stool talking with a Sheikah man in hushed tones.

“It just shouldn’t be possible, it couldn’t be.”

“Well, it is and it would be pretty exciting if we could recreate it.”

“It was used to kidnap someone, Purah.”

“Yes, but think of how much we can learn!”

Wild stepped forward to break up the increasingly concerning conversation, “Purah, I got the others. I’m sorry we have to skip some pleasantries, but they should know what you saw.”

The girl, Purah, turned towards them and snapped her fingers, breaking into a pose. “Linky, I thought you were better than this, but these are extenuating circumstances I suppose. Gather here, boys. Let me tell you the unbelievable. Symin, fetch the sketchbook.” The Sheikah man went off to the side to look over all the open books with care before selecting the one specified. 

The heroes did as asked and gathered by the table next to Purah. Symin handed her the sketchbook and she spoke while looking for the right page, “Now, I know of your predicaments, displaced in time, all meeting up, many heroes. Very Exciting possibilities. But! It will most come in handy right now.” She turned the book towards them, “Do any of you recognize this?”

It was a sketch someone had done of what seemed to be a weird contraption that was oddly familiar, but Legend couldn’t place it. Maybe he’d seen it in a book or from far away. Sky also seemed to be at a loss for what they were looking at. Twilight on the other hand gasped in shock. “That’s-”

Purah grinned, “Ah, so we have a winner. I have to say you lived quite a long time ago. I’ve only ever heard of a sky canon as a rumor. I didn’t think they were real!”

Twilight’s confusion grew as he took the book, “I wasn’t from that age, but I had found a canon on my adventure and a friend of mine fixed it. How-” His shock left him stumbling for the right words. “You saw this here during this time?”

Purah seemed to enjoy his bafflement and waved her hand like it was a ridiculous question, “Oh no, not in Hateno. It showed up in Central Hyrule out in the field. Our dear Princess went out to understand what it was when the letters arrived and even got a few samples of the land around it like the true thorough scientist she is and brought those back to the lab. You see, that canon disappeared one night like it was never there, we were only able to get this one sketch. But the samples of the grass and soil we still had.” She grinned thinking of the discovery she was about to unleash, “It wasn’t a match to our field’s grass. It looked like it was from a particular strand that has growth by a large body of water-” the loud thump of the sketchbook hitting the ground stopped her in her tracks. “Hey!”

Twilight looked like a horse kicked him in the stomach, “...Hylia.”

Sky snapped his head towards him at hearing the goddess’s name said in such a way, “ _Pardon_?” 

The ranch hand shook his head, “No! No, _Lake Hylia_. I left that canon at Lake Hylia. That’s where we had made camp! It was a bit of ways away from us, granted, but close enough to see if you walked around the perimeter.”

Legend snapped to attention, “Like someone on watch.” A shocked silence filled the room as the heroes present put the pieces together. Legend couldn’t believe what they just uncovered. Someone or _something_ moved an entire piece of land _and people_ through time and was able to put it back when they got what they were after. But most importantly what he got from this new information, “They were here the whole time.”

Purah managed to understand the heroes needed some time to digest it all, and left the room with Symin in tow. Twilight slumped down in the abandoned stool, the shock never left his face. “How did we let this happen? How could we miss something like that happening right next to us?” He picked up the book again to look at the sketch again, “We need to ask her where this was drawn and go there _immediately_.” He made to stand, but Legend pushed him back into his seat.

“No, what we need to ask her is _when_ the sketch was made. They could’ve been here for days, maybe even weeks! They could be anywhere in this Hyrule and I’d like to know how much of a head start they got on us first.” Legend crossed his arms as Twilight huffed in agreement.

Wild had his slate out and looked like he was going to be sick, “Central Hyrule has it’s name for a reason. They could’ve gone in any direction…” He trailed off and looked at the map more as if it would tell him where they went. “And not to be even more of a downer, but we’re assuming that they’re even moving together. What if they got separated? The field is littered with decaying guardians that are still malfunctioning. What if they got hurt? What if-” Sky stopped him from going down the dark thoughts by grabbing his shoulders.

“Hey, listen to me. We can’t think like that, okay?” He glanced at Legend and Twilight. “We can’t assume they’ll be at their best, but we still have to have faith in them.” Wild took shaky breaths, but nodded and held the slate to his chest. “Now, I think we should tell the others still. We’ll need to travel together to find them both, so the others need to be in the know anyways. Can we agree on that?”

They all nodded in agreement. This time they’ll work as a team, missing members or not. Legend looked at the three of them and saw that spark they’ve all gotten before, that determination the hero spirit passed along. “Sky’s right. The others need to know, but we still have missing information. I think we need to take time to get ready here in Hateno, but to also rest.”

Twilight gave him a baffled look, “I know rest and recuperation is important, but we’ve been here two days already. We need to move before another portal shows up and we’re forced to move before we find them. We’ve tried to dodge those things in the past, but it never worked.”

Legend was aware of this risk, but something in his gut told him they needed to be in peak condition for what was coming. Call him superstitious, but his gut feeling helped him through many quests and split second decisions. But Sky had to point out another damning constraint as well, “We always underestimate how large this Hyrule is, we can’t exactly wait to get moving either, it could take us days to get to Central Hyrule alone.”

“I think I can help with that problem.” The heroes turned to see Purah in the doorway. She grinned triumphantly, “A certain Princess arrived in town just now with information, and horses, that can be very helpful.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, it's me again been a hot sec, right? Quick note: I know Age of Calamity has a time travel thing going on, but I played like five minutes of it and just never picked it up again, whoops, but I had based these time shenanigans on the OG Hyrule Warriors. I don't know if they had done something similar or not for the two games, but if not and you see anything that looks like it has to do with Age of Calamity it'll just be a pleasant surprise for the both of us!  
> Also another quicker note: Lord oh my god, I am sorry for that wait, big yikes right there, if you're still here even after that, _mad respect, yo._


End file.
